about something she was going through with a band member at the time, and she was pouring her heart out about it." Swift desired for Caillat to sing background vocals but in a loud manner, enough for audiences to recognize who sang backup. Originally Swift and Caillat were only to harmonize in the chorus, but as Caillat recorded, Swift decided to include her voice more throughout the track because of how impressed she was. Swift first recorded the entire song, and Caillat then recorded background vocals separately. Swift was very pleased with the finished product: "I think she sounds beautiful on it. I'm so excited to have her voice on my album." The song was released for digital download exclusively through Rhapsody as a promotional single on October 21, 2008, through Big Machine Records. On the Miami Gardens, Florida, concert as part of her Reputation Stadium Tour on August 18, 2018, Swift performed "Breathe" as part of a "surprise song" for the mid-show acoustic session; she told the crowd that she was "99 percent sure" she had never performed the song live before. On February 11, 2021, Swift announced on Good Morning America that a re-recorded version of "Breathe", titled "Breathe (Taylor's Version)", would be released on April 9, 2021 as the seventh track from Fearless (Taylor's Version), the re-recorded version of Fearless. Caillat returned as the song's feature. Composition "Breathe" was recorded by Chad Carlson at Blackbird and Starstruck Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a ballad with a length of four minutes and twenty-one seconds. It was written in common time and has a ballad tempo of 72 beats per minute. It is written in the key of D major, and Swift and Caillat's vocals span one octave, from G3 to B4. "Breathe" follows the chord progression D5–A–G. The song's instrumentation relies mainly on acoustic guitar and mandolin, which are often plucked, while, on occasion, piano and violins provide the accompaniment. The lyrics for "Breathe" are about heartbreak and the loss of a close friendship. In the song's verses, the narrator acknowledges that people change and grow apart, though she is upset because she knows the person "like the back of her hand." In the song's refrains, she realizes the need to remain strong and breathe in order to live without the person. Ken Tucker of Billboard believed "Breathe" was a "love-gone-wrong song." Critical reception The song received